The Music Showdown

My first blog post was about the benefits of classical music. I found a few organizations such as Project 440. They are one of the many organizations that empower students to turn their passion for playing music into a passion for giving back to their community. My second blog post discusses LiveConnections and their three different types of programs- Bridge Sessions, ClassicAlive and LiveStudio. They “... inspire learning and build communities through collaborative music-making.” Another organization is Astral Artists, who want “To discover the most promising classical musicians residing in the United States, assist their early professional career development, and present their world-class artistry to the community through concerts and engagement programs.”

I emailed Project 440, LiveConnections and a few of my instrumental teachers, looking for a presentation that could be shown to my class. After lots of correspondence, both organizations had to decline. It turned out the Mr. Conyers, of Project 440, was on a European Tour with The Philadelphia Orchestra (their calendar can be seen here). For LiveConnections, there just was not enough time for them to put something together.

So I did a presentation to my advisory! You can see the slideshow here. A video clip of my presentation can be seen here. Unfortunately, my phone did not have enough storage so only half of it can be seen in the video.

I had them listen to two pieces, one pop music and the other classical. The first was “Roar” by Katy Perry and the second, the Allegro of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (A Little Night Music) composed by Mozart. These are two pretty different pieces! As they listened, I asked them to draw and/or write their reactions/thoughts/feelings. After listening to each song, a few shared their experiences and art. I was pleasantly surprised that a few of my classmates started snapping while listening to Mozart because I was all prepared for groaning and complaining.

The main purpose of this presentation was to open my advisory’s minds to new musical experiences. I told them, “If you enjoyed the classical music I played today, maybe try some more!” A few of my classmates said they felt relaxed listening to the classical piece. My advice to them was to listen to classical when you’re tense. And to those who felt that pop energized them- listen to pop music when you are tired.

According to Healthline, “Scientists at the University of Missouri have found that people can boost their mood simply by listening to upbeat music.” “Music therapy has been used for centuries as a way to restore energy, improve mood, and even help the body heal more naturally.” and is ‘the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals.’ ” according to the American Music Therapy Association.

Here is a picture of my classmate’s drawing:

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They said, “The classical music made me happy so that's why I drew so many happy faces. And for Roar it made me feel more agitated and aggressive. That's why there's ‘Grrr...’.”



And another classmate said, “I don't really like pop music, so when I first heard it I knew that I was not for a happy ride. I drew more jagged because the beat was all the over the place. However when listening to the classical piece I felt more in peace. I drew smoother waves and wrote the words relaxed and serene. Overall, I would say the classical piece is much better for focusing and using as background music. Compared to the edginess of the pop, you get hung on the words.”


Here’s their art:

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Overall, I am proud of my Agent Of Change. I worked hard to connect with outside resources and even though in the end it didn’t work out, I stayed strong and created something on my own. I really enjoyed this emotional artwork, as I will call it. To take this to the next level, I wish I had more time to ask other people, not just my classmates or my advisory. I could’ve asked teachers or even musicians. I would’ve wanted to see others’ reactions to pop vs. classical and see their creativity shine.


Annotated Bibliography

You and the World Final Post

Sydney Montgomery

Mrs.Giknis

English 1

June 5, 2015

Blog Post Reflection


I wish I could have found a lot more information for this project. After starting the project I realized that I didn’t even know what I was looking for. I had my mind set on so many different ideas and didn’t even take the time to really think them through. For my original research, I decided to interview the school psychologist. The interview went wonderful and I loved all the information that she gave me, but afterwards I felt lost. I didn’t know what to do with the information or how I could benefit from it. My research had just become worthless. If I ever had to do this project over, I would do an entirely different project. Maybe me doing something that I was this passionate about wasn’t the best idea. Me being this interested in my topic made me want to go all out on it and realizing that I couldn’t do these things frustrated me. I had to keep settling for less because my ideas just didn’t fit in with the time I had. At first I wanted to do a field observation at my old school, but I didn’t know what I was looking for. So many questions came to mind that made me think about I could possibly benefit from that research and I couldn’t find one positive answer. If I could do this exact part over again, I would get way more organized so that I could a lot more information to work with. I would do the same with my agent of change too because that part for me went absolutely terrible. Again, I had plenty of wonderful ideas but had to think about time. As soon as I thought I found the one for me, things started to go wrong again. People didn’t answer my survey, then when I finally did get TWO responses I couldn’t even work with that. I got my pictures late, and the two people I thought would rescue my project never gave me the one I really needed to complete this task. After this I just gave up because I didn’t quite see the point anymore. My project was a complete failure and did not at all spread the message I wanted it to.

Sponsors for Immigrants

Blog Post #3:

Blog 2

Blog 1

Hey, nice to see you guys again!

Originally, for my Agent of Change, I was going to do a fundraiser for the organization that I was hoping to work with, but there had been many technical difficulties. I had many ideas like teaching at a school and teach things about immigration. But through many hardships, I have decided to make a website here.

This is the front-page of my website.

I wanted to point this towards Cambodians, as you can see, there is Cambodian dialect under the English phrases. I tried my best translating it from English to Cambodian without using a translator and often going to my parents and other relatives for help, as they are immigrants from Cambodia. I was in a hurry so I to use the website, Weebly, which helped me a lot when it came down to my last resort.

On the website I talk about how in the past being a sponsor was a very dangerous thing. This is during the war when people looking for sponsors would get taken and killed. Today there are people that want to be sponsors in an effort to help others in bad countries. I made the website to show the good side of sponsors because when people hear migration they think of illegal immigrants. But sponsors just help start the process so that the immigrants can come to a country legally. I talk about this in the about section of my website.

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I also talk about the history and talk more about sponsors in the front page of my website.

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mp4

Quarter 4 art was a drag for me. I didn't know what I was doing have of the time and most of my drawings did not not set the standard for the instructor nor myself. As the marking period decided to come to an end I choose to focus on my work and try to produce The best possible work I could. For My art project I drew a Volcano because because something on TV. I drew a dress Because I went to SLA's fashion show On May 1st. I drew arabic letters with the translation islam because that resembles who I am. For my last drawing I drew a self portrait because I wanted to see how i would look on paper. So all my drawling came to life from my world. So even though I dreaded Quarter 4 advanced art it taught me how to bring my ideas to life in a drawing. 

What I learned

For my You and the World project I did Stereotypes and Discrimination with Work and Education with a Disability.In my blog post #1 I just introduced my project. In my blog post #2 I talked about what I did for my original research.

I wish that I would’ve found a graduate from the special-ed classes from Edison High School. I would’ve been cool to talk to him/her.During this project I learned so much.

I think I would have rather done another project because I finished my project really early and then I had nothing else to do. But with my project I would have spaced out my project a lot better. I don’t really want to know a lot except one thing, I would like to know how people with disabilities live, i want to know how they live life. I wish I would have done another project because my project bored me a little bit. I had fun with it but then I didn’t at the same time.

I did have the impact that I wanted because I wanted my advisory to learn about my project and they did. I think that I should have put poster’s around the school and maybe I would have had  larger impact because then the school would have known about but I had the impact i wanted.

Stereotypes and Discrimination to people with Disabilities

My first blog post was about me introducing my You and the World project which is Stereotyping and Discrimination with Work and Education with a Disability. I felt as though this topic was not cared for as much as it needed to be. For my second blog post  I wrote about the field research I did at Edison High School. I visited one of the special-ed classes and I learned a lot. I learned that they mostly focus on life-skills and have the opportunity to stay in high school till they’re 21.

For my agent of change I decided to do a advisory presentation. In my advisory presentation I added most of the information that I learned and talked about the rest. I wanted to do an advisory presentation because my advisory seemed to know nothing about it. I think that I was pretty successful in presenting to my advisory and I think they learned a lot. I did not necessarily want to do this as my agent of change but I did not know what I even wanted to do as my agent of change.

 





I think that I changed a lot during this project. It really taught me that  should never judge or discriminate anybody. I know that it is really cliche but it is true because even I was a little biased before this project. I really enjoyed during my project. I taught that it was a lot of fun and it was a great learning experience.I think that I could’ve done better just because I sort of rushed my project. I took no time, I knew what I wanted to do since the beginning and I took no brakes. I did my project really fast. I think the only thing that is left to do is to have everybody do their research and educate themselves about people with disabilities.  


bibliography

PRIDE of an ATHLETE

In my 1st Blog Post I introduced my topic for my project which was Performance Enhancing drugs (PEDs).  I talked about the effect that certain PEDs have on your body and my opinion on Performance Enhancing Drugs. In my 2nd Blog Post I included a chart that talks about the usage of drugs by Division 2 Colleges.  


I feel like people don't take the usage of Performance Enhancing Drugs as seriously as they should.  It is a big issue in pro sport, college, and sometimes even in high school.  They're aren't many people out here doing anything to stop it, they just react when it happens.  But, for my agent of change I decided to make wristband that say ¨Natural Athlete¨ on the outside and ¨No Steroids¨ on the inside.  I gave these out to my teammates and coaches.  People from other teams are coming up to me and teammates asking where they can get one.  I feel like the word is getting out about my agent of change, and that was my intention.





This is a very important topic to me.  I am really passionate about this because I want to play baseball in College and hope to eventually play Pro Ball.  So if i make to these level of competition, I don't want to play against or with fair chances.  


I will never use Performance Enhancing Drugs.  I would never put my body through that.  I put in hard work and dedicate myself to the sport of baseball so I can always get better and progress as a player and a leader on my team.  What image would I give the rest of my team as leader if I cheat by using drugs to give myself a boost and unfair chance.  And sometimes it's about pride.  You have to respect

Stepping Out and Helping

In my Blog Post, I introduced my topic for the “You and The World” project, it is about animal abuse. I mentioned my experiences on the animal abuse topic and included online research and informational facts about abused animals. I talked about an animal in my Blog Post #1 named Lincoln who was brought to a high-Kill shelter. In my Blog Post #2 I talked about my trip to the Paws Center and the ASPCA center. I talked about the animals that were injured and abused and how the shelters were caring for the animals. I also placed the Interview answers I asked one of the workers.

There are many people who are doing things about animal abuse that can help them like Events at Community centers (Fundraising), Starting neighborhood watches, organizing a Wildlife Expedition, etc. My opinion on changing these ways are that they should be in to more supporting shelters and organizations than having meetings and races. It is a good idea to get the word out, but not a lot would be done with groups and events. For my agent of change I raised money to build an outdoor protective shelter for abused/abandoned animals on the street. Instead of donating the money to an organization to build one for their animals, I built one for the animals that can't and won't be taken to a shelter or kept in a house.



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This is the Outdoor Protective Shelter for Abused and Abandoned Animals that are homeless. The Purpose is to give the animals a place to sleep or a roof to protect them from rain or just even to live and have food and water.


Including the homemade shelter I have done many things to change, like having bake sales to donate to organizations, spreading the word about animal abuse, going to animal shelters and help them in any way I can. I think this project was a great way for students to do something about an important issue and help them learn more about the topic and actually make them start making a change. I like this project and I will continue with the project with the outdoor shelter. I learned that I can do a lot to support and help out animals that can't help themselves. I learned that my actions with my own dogs are good and better than most owners are. I feel I could have worked out my fundraising a little better and more planned out. The things that are left for me to do is basically raise awareness about animal abuse and make sure people understand what is happening.

Let's make a change!

My past work has led up to my Agent of Change, and making a change in the world. In my first blog post (passion and information) I explained and wrote about how anti-semitism was an issue in the world. I explained how scary and dangerous anti-semitism was, especially in places like Europe and the Middle East. Blog post one led to my second blog post. In my blog post two (original research) I met with and interviewed Holocaust survivor Rabbi Charlie Kraus. He talked about his experiences living through the Holocaust and his views about judaism now. My interview with him sparked my interests yet again. He said he was disappointed and sad at how the world is acting to Jews now.

In my recent research I have found new ways to help the issue of anti-semitism in the world. I have given a presentation to my advisory, and I plan to show it more until I have made a difference. Some places you can make a difference at are the Jewish Relief Agency and the Anti-Defamation League. These sites give you an opportunity to help Jews in the Philadelphia community or help make a difference in the world. I think that these two agencies are great for helping out in the issue of anti-semitism. I have volunteered with the Jewish Relief Agency on several occasions. I was making a difference in the Philadelphia Jewish community. I have not volunteered with the Anti-Defamation League, however it gives many options on how to help anti-semitism, especially in the Middle East.  

For my Agent of Change I made and presented a slide show. I showed it to my advisory. My presentation was also shown to the 8th grade class at Greenfield Middle School. I want to show my presentation to more and more people. I will make a bigger difference in the world and I will help solve the issue of anti-semitism.   

I learned a lot throughout this project. I have had change, more people know more about anti-semitism and more about jews after watching my slide show. This project has helped me in many ways. I can now coordinate with others and their schedules (to a certain degree.) This project has helped me grow as a learned and as a member of the Jewish community. I felt good about this project. When everything was finished, I felt proud of the work I had done and after working with others schedules, I feel good about my outcomes. However there some things I could change about the project. If I did this project again I would finish my presentation sooner and talk to more people about presenting to them and others. I would also have done more for the passion and information blog post. I would also take more time to work on my blog posts. I still have to make more of a change in the world. One fact that really struck me was that Temple was the 8th most anti-semitic campus in the country. I would like to change that and educate more people about jews and anti-semitism.


Stop Abducting

Hey guys I know that it has been a while since I last posted. So if you have forgotten what they talked about you can just click here to see the first one and here to see the second one.

In my first blog post I was basically talking about how much this generation's youth is not educated on what to do and what not to do when approached by a stranger and just the statistics. In my second blog post I talked about how I had an interview with Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane which is a man that specializes in child abduction. To raise awareness for child abduction I have created a poster that says “Stranger = Danger”. This small saying is going to be posted on social media. I am going to get friends to post the poster and use the hashtag  #StopAbductingOurYouth, hopefully this hashtag will spread like wildfire and get people to become more aware of child abduction. I also made a script that people would be able to act out and post on whatever social media site that they would like, if anyone wanted to post the video it would be nice if the could put #StopAbducting Youth so that way it will start trending.  

In the beginning  I had a different plan for my Agent Of Change. I wanted to use the script that I  made and act it out. The obstacle that I faced with that plan was trying to film on a day that would fit with the people that I had choose to film, so I basically ran out of time.

I am passionate about this topic but I think that if I could do this project over I would choose a different topic because I never thought this would be such a hard topic to discuss. Even though I am passionate out this topic I feel like I am somewhat giving up on it because it feels like I have bit off more than I can chew. This is a very cool project but it is project that takes time. I think that this was a project that should have been given more than one quarter to do. I think that I definitely managed my time better because I think that would have made it a lot easier to do. If I could start the project over I would change my PIC to helping the homeless. Everyday that I go to school I see someone that is homeless and it makes me ache with guilt that while I have a place to live, food to eat, and a place to bathe  they have nothing put the clothes on their backs.

To see the poster that I created that will be posted on social media click here.


Reflection

The you and the world project was difficult for me because the topic I picked wasn’t a topic that the great majority felt as strongly about it as I did. My topic was immigration and even though it is a big problem it’s not something that students around my age think about. If I was going to do it differently I would pick a much more popular topic. By having a popular project the project will be easier for me. The research part of the project was easy the part that was hard was the agent of change part. Since people didn’t feel as strongly as I did about the topic people didn’t really care about my agent of change. I feel like if we could work in groups the project would of been easier and fun. I also feel like I could of made my topic more specific by focusing on immigrant children because that is a topic people would be more interested in because of the kids. In conclusion my agent of change project didn’t go as good as I wanted it to because I didn’t pick a good topic. Now that I’ve finished the project if I was going to do it again I would know what to do.


Q4 Brandon Jones Art Project

For the 4th quarter, I have decided to go with mostly hand drawn pictures, the exception being a 3D shape created using geometric equations on the website TinkerCad. The inspiration for my drawings came from things that I enjoy watching. I chose Disney's Hercules as my first picture because not only was it the first Disney movie I watched, but I still watch it to this day. I chose Pocahontas as my 2nd drawing because she is my favorite Disney Princess. For my fourth drawing I chose Ken Kanaki from the Anime Series: Tokyo Ghoul because it is one of my favorite anime that I am currently watching. A technique that I was going for in all of my drawings was shading as it has challenged me in the past.

The End

The you and the world project was a very fun project. I enjoyed doing it because it made me feel like I was making a difference. The only problem that I had with it was that the time frame for such a big project was small so a lot of things had to be rushed. Overall I feel like one of my biggest successes was the bake sale because I was able to raise over $200. The thing that I feel like I could’ve done better is trying do my interview in person, because I attempted to do my interview over the phone but the autism society wasn’t picking up.  

My original research went very well. I was able to get a large amount of info from the website of the Autism Society, I was also able to get flyers from them. If I were to do it differently I would order autism awareness shirts and sell those to raise money instead. The reason why I would prefer to sell shirts is that I feel like they would last longer and would be better than the flyers since people most likely threw away the flyers.

I had a much better outcome than I thought I would. I thought the bake sale was going to be very unsuccessful because on the day that we had the bake sale the school store was having discounts, and some seniors were selling sandwiches. This caused me to feel like I would raise little to know money at the bake sale. But I was proved wrong when I was able to raise a decent $245.

Stranger= Danger

Hello everyone! It has been sometime since my first blog post. In my first blog post I was basically talking about how much this generation's youth is not educated on what to do and what not to do when approached by a stranger and just the statistics. I have dived even deeper into my topic and found lots of shocking information. During the time of my last blog post I have discovered a lot of different information such as the different tactics, the way that police deal with abductions, and how age relates to the motivation that the abductor would have to abduct someone. Not only did I find out new information but I got an interview with a detective that specializes in child abduction. I had an interview with Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane.

After having the interview with Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane I thought that it was really cool how I somewhat got to have child abduction broken down. I am very happy that I get to share my findings with all of my viewers because it is not everyday that you get the opportunity to have an interview with someone who is in control of all of the abductions that happen from Virginia to Maine. For my original research I was originally was going to interview a close family friend that was a police officer. That changed when I found out that my track coach had connections to a person that specialized in child abduction. It was very hard trying to get in contact with Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane because at first I never got to talk to him personally and I would always get whatever needed to be said, said through my track coach. Another problem that I had was trying to find time to actually have the interview because Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane is such a busy person.

Like I had said before I dived deeper into my topic by surfing the web hours a day. The most interesting website that I discovered was a website that had a lady named Rose Muara write about the time when she herself was abducted at the age of 7. It was so attention grabbing because she talked about the what she was thinking, how she was feeling, and how she planned to make it out alive. When you read her story you kind of get an insight on what it is like to be abducted but then again you still will never feel the fear like she did.

Having the interview with Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane really helped me with my PIC issue because it helped me narrow down what I wanted to do for my Agent Of Change, as Supervisory Special Agent Kevin McShane answered the question that I had my brain began to buzz with ideas. Even though I got the answers to the questions that I have I will always be curious as to how you could just snatch someone away from the rest of humanity and keep them held in captivity like an animal.

For my Agent Of Change I want to do an informational skit. I want to take one of the tactics that abductors use and at it out and then show what are the do's and dont's when you are in a situation where you are approached by a stranger.Image result for a stranger approaching a child with the lost dog tactic

  • This is a picture that shows a stranger trying to get a kid to go with him by using candy to lure him in


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  • This is a really cool picture that is supposed to say that going into the van is scary because once you get into the van the only emotion that you will feel is fear.

Childhood Cancer Reflection

This was by far my favorite project that I've done all year. Not only was this my favorite project of the year but one of the most stressful. When doing a project like this there are gonna be many major glows and grows and I had just a few.


My first blog post was very exciting to write but I was also nervous about say the same thing over and over again. When doing the research I had to look at different accredited resources that gave me great information. The problem I had with this is that most of the websites said the same thing over and over again. So it took a lot of research for me to get to 500 words in that blog post. I wish I could go back and go more into detail about different types of childhood cancer and which ones are curable and not curable.


My blog post number two was definitely the most exciting. My interview was one of the best things I've done so far in my life. I was finally able to show someone that they weren't forgotten about by the teenage community. When going into this interview I thought it would be very sad, but it turned out to be a really good teenage conversation. The person I interviewed was very down to earth and funny. This interview showed met that life is too short to walk around sad and mopey and to live each and every day like it's your last.


Blog post number three was the most stressful of them all. It was so stressful, I had to get an extension. First off my Agent Of Change didn't go exactly how I planned it. I planned on going to CHOP and visiting cancer, but that didn't work out so I decided to make care packages. The person I gave my care package to is a senior at SLA by the name of Matt. I was definitely surprised by his reaction, I thought he would hate it but he really enjoyed it. I guess I did make the change I wanted to. I just wanted to make people happy and that's what I did.

The Time Has Come...dun dun dun


 Through this project, I have been inspired to be active in my beliefs, rather than passive. I now see that it is very important to not only express your passion through words, but also by being proactive.  For my research, I found extensive information about the impact mental illnesses has on society(i.e suicides, bullying), I wish I would have found more information about more ways the mental illness is broken and unrepaired.This would have definitely enhanced my first blog post because it would show my readers that the problems I described in my blog post actually exist. For my original research, I stumbled upon some disappointments such as getting no response from a lot of organizations and people whom I reached out to. This was discouraging ; however, it was not enough to stop my determination. Initially, I wanted to interview Eleanor Longdin because I had watched her Ted Talk, "The Voices In My Head", where she explained her struggles with mental illness and the reactions of others around her. I figured she would have a lot to say on my topic( America's broken mental health care system). I google searched her, hoping she would have a website, by which she could be contacted, but I was not that lucky. I soon realized, after research, that I would only be able to reach her through social media, which appeared to be a long shot, due to the many farce 'personal' accounts titled 'Eleanor Longdin' on twitter. I decided to abandon my pursuit of Longdin and instead use sources more local. I called about five psychology professors at Penn, but got no response, which is expected looking back in hindsight.  After those attempts failed, I used one of the closest sources available: The teachers and students at SLA. I first created a survey that gauged the knowledge of my freshmen peers about the broken system. I decided to do this because I wanted to reach out to the youth because we are future leaders. Moreover, I interviewed Jevon Price and Ms.Menasion, my advisor, about their opinions on the dull mental health care discussion and how the discussions are resuscitated by tragedy(Newtown).  I decided to interview Ms.Menasion, not only because she is very supportive, but also because she is a special education teacher. Her responses were insightful and very helpful. Ultimately, I felt equipped with my 50 survey responses and two interviews, although that is not originally what I wished my original research to compile of. If I could change anything, I would have used sources closest to me(family, friends, teachers, etc.). My Agent of Change was trifold, including two collaborations.  I was not originally planning to collaborate, however, when I was aked by Opoku to help out with hi bake sale raising money for Autism Awareness, I knew I had accept because it was my very own autistic brother who inspired my topic for this project. Together, we donated $245 to an Autism Awareness Research office in New Jersey. I felt like we made an impact because we contributed to research, which will find new treatments and therapies. Also, we created awareness within our school by distributing autism informative brochures to those who bought our baked goods. Next, I decided to give a presentation at TFI to educate my peers and bring awareness to the gaps in our nation's mental health care system. I found this to be very successful, despite video uploading errors, because my audience looked genuinely interested in what I had to say and I received a lot of compliments afterwards. At last, I combined forced with Jae Regino and Jhazzelle Majarucon and created a social anxiety awareness website. I am really happy with the way it turned out. It is both aesthetically pleasing and educational. Jhazzelle, through her own research,  even discovered the already existing tongue twister challenge, which brought awareness to the complexities of the lives of the socially anxious.  I really enjoyed my three-part Agent of Change awareness-bringing activities and do would not change them if I had another chance.


Overall, in my opinion, this benchmark project was hard work, but time most certainly well spent.

Orange Is The New... Black? // Dennis Blog Post #3

In my Blog Post #1 and Blog Post #2, I gave a tiny overview on Leukemia and what I did to learn more about it. Blog Post #1 was why I decided to do some research on the topic and my ties with it. Blog Post #2 was where I went to develop more information on the topic and explain even more facts to those who are concerned. And now I have reached my third Blog Post, and boy was it depressing.


Originally for my Agent Of Change, I was going to apply to the Ronald McDonald House of Charities to try my best and volunteer at a Family Room at The Children's Hospital to entertain and provide hope to different leukemia and cancer patients. Unfortunately for me, even when they promised a reply from their office in three days via email, I have yet to receive one. With my hope slowly deteriorating, I fled to The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's website to submit another application for a one-time volunteering option. This time, the response time was a day at least. I believed that I had found my Agent Of Change yet again! Instead, I was emailed back almost instantly, stating that options was "No Longer Valid for Volunteering Options". I hope scattered, I believed my chances were slim for getting an uplifting grade on this project. I had only one option left, and I needed as much help as I could get. So I emailed my fellow classmates in Orange Stream and asked them to wear an orange specific shirt or accessory to show support for this cause.


And I was surprised by how much cooperation I had received!


Paul-Ann Whyte, Avery Measely, and Chuckie Copeland, all supporting Leukemia by wearing orange

I will definitely give special recognition when the post is drawing to a close. I asked different people in Orange Stream to show how much they cared for Leukemia by wearing orange to support the cause. Some were my closest friends, some people were even those who I have never met. Even some upperclassmen supported me and my Agent of Change.

Of course it's not enough people to end a horrible type of cancer like Leukemia. I mean, wearing shirts won't save anymore. But the reason for shirts is that they're just a STEP in the huge flight of stairs. This is awareness. The next step will be getting more people aware of Leukemia, and the next one will be attacking it head on. Sure that's a big leap, but the flight isn't done with just attacking. There's funding, supporting, and way more research.


Zoë Chernowski and Claire Byrnes, both rocking orange while in Art class.

After explaining to these people the situation my friend was in before being diagnosed, and how it compared to her personality AFTER being diagnosed, my friends were very sympathetic to me, and understood how hard it must have been to go through such an experience. My participants didn't want anything like this to continue in the world, and I am so very grateful for those who participated.


This was a last resort for me, and I feel like if it wasn't, I would've had WAY more participants. After a failed attempts at numerous businesses and charities, I feel as though this was a little second rate. But hey! It worked for me, and I raised a little awareness for those who didn't know much about it. If I knew that I was going to be rejected by multiple charities, I would've went with this obviously. Next time, I should try my best to go for something as simple, yet welcoming as this option for my Agent of Change. For now, I will continue to tell people the story of my beloved friend and hopefully get them on the side of fighting against Leukemia.

Thank you to the following people for your participation:
  • Paul-Ann Whyte
  • Chuckie Copeland
  • Zoë Chernowski
  • Claire Byrnes
  • Jamal Hampton
  • CJ Irwin-Diehl
  • Jhazzelle Majarucon
  • Kawthar Hasan
  • Jessica Guarino

Labeling Women Project Reflection

For my research, I wish I had found sources outside of my school, to add more information to my survey results. I also could have gotten adults to fill out my survey, because I mainly got students from the school to fill it out. I want to know to whether certain individuals reacted in a way that was different from doing nothing. Were there any physical or verbal fights, because one was simply labeled?  I only want to know that, because in the survey, I just asked how they felt, but now I want to know whether they reacted out of those feelings they had.


For my original research, I did I survey and sent it out to the girls in the school. The sad part about it is the fact that not many people took it, and ever since I added a question, some people retake it. If I were to it again, I would first make sure I have a draft of the survey, before I send it out to people. The good thing is that people took it, otherwise I would have nothing for my research.


For my Agent of Change, I sort of got the impact I wanted. When people were wearing the shirts, people only realized the bold words that were on them. What they didn’t see is that it had a hashtag and twitter on the back and even ¨ask me about it¨ on the bottom. Sadly, not many people asked about it, they simply just commented on it, because of the word they saw written across the front of the shirt.

3rd Annual Rough Cut Film Festival- Tues, 6/9 630-830p

Screen Shot 2015-06-06 at 1.27.36 PM
Screen Shot 2015-06-06 at 1.27.36 PM
Rough Cut Productions proudly presents our 3rd annual Film Festival to showcase another year of original content production. Come Join us for an evening of amazingly funny, thought-provoking, exciting and award-winning films, as well as a few blasts from the past. 

For the first time, RCFF was open to submissions from other video production programs in the city in an effort to unify our growing film community. Amazing films from CAPA, Edison, Roxborough, North East, Kensington CAPA and W Philly will be in the lineup. 

This event is free, but seating in Franklin Theater at TFI is limited to 250, so book your ticket here
Doors at 6p, Show at 630p. Note: Direct access to Franklin Theater via Winter St. entrance.  

It's not over until MS is cured...

This project was the most interesting of them all, You and the World project actually changed my views on a lot of different things and it was because of the different project that everyone did. Some glows that I had were the presentation that I did in class, I thought that doing this project was the biggest glow because this project was so personal I feel like I'm helping my Mom in so many ways possible that I didn't think I could do. Some Grows that I have would be to continue this project outside of class because it become something that I enjoy doing. I enjoyed doing the Original Research, but lets start at the beginning of the project, I’m not talking about the Research part of the project I’m talking about the proposal. Coming up with a topic to actually research was a little difficult but the way I actually got my topic was from my Mom, she thought that doing this would raise awareness to the topic and get people thinking about it and though the entire project that was what I went by. Now the Research part of the project I was easy but I wish I could find more infomation on my Mom Ms so that I could share with all of you. It’s a lot still to be discovered and I will continue you update you guys if anything changes.

My Original Research was interviewing a doctor, which was scary. I thought that I wasn’t asking the right questions and getting enough information, but then I thought well it's good enough to actually write about. Things that I would do differently is maybe not have a bunch of kids there in the background making a lot of noise. I enjoyed doing the Original Research I thought that part of the project was most interesting part.

For my Agent of change, Me and My Family took part in the MS walk in late April to Early May. The walk raises money for research and new medicine, things like that maybe even finding a cure. I also did a presentation to the class, I was going to do it for advisory but plans got changed. I thought that it went well I just wish the entire class was there to see it. I hope to have a bigger impact and I’m thinking about doing something similar for capstones my senior year at SLA.

Q4 Art Work Antoinette Hiller

This final year of art, I wanted to make sure that I did something that I can remember for myself. I wanted to take something with me to show all of hard work that I did, not just for this year of art but for all 4 years of it. Art became a regular thing after doing it for 4 years straight and I don't think that something that I can just forget about. I really do feel as though I have grown and built greater confidence as an artist. For the future, I do hope that I progress more and keep art in my life. I'm sad that this journey has come to an end but the ride was fun. 

Fast Fashion// Glows and Grows

For this project I focused on garment sweatshops which is the most common type of labor exploitation in factories. I want to know what other types of jobs poor people living in third-world countries have that also violates labor laws

and treat workers incompetently with insufficient pay. For example, I remember seeing a few years ago, a documentary about how little kids no more than ten years of age were forced to toil all day every day in South Africa for the Hershey company. I love chocolate just as much as I love getting insane deals on trendy clothing, but the whole fashion industry runs on exploited labor which is NOT okay. I also still want to know what actions our government has made regarding this issue because it is a global concern, but every one seems to continue to shop unethically even after knowing about the people who work in sweatshops in other countries making our clothes.

I originally sought to do an interview for my original research, but the organization I contacted ended up not being a real organization at all. Next time, I would have started researching people I can talk to about my issue with earlier. Because I was not able to do an interview, I followed Ms. Giknis's suggestion which was to do a field observation instead. I walked around Center City taking pictures of tags from clothing stores that were most notoriously known for having their merchandise made in sweatshops.

As most of you know, I hung up a clothing line in front of the office and got people to sign my pledge agreeing to only purchase ethically made items for the next thirty five days. I received more than twenty signatures which is not a lot, but that was my goal because I know that most people love their cheap deals on trendy clothing even if it was made by children. I think that if I were to do it again, I would have gone around to the different advisories including my own to collectively present my project and take pledgers, This way I think that I would have gotten much more signatures, saved time and breath because I wouldn't be repeating the same thing to every one over and over again.


Q4 Artwork Micah Henry

Art this year has been both up and down. At the beginning of the year I did not care for it much at all and my work showed that. However as the year went on, I realized drawing is actually very fun if you put some effort into it. I believe anyone can draw well and make someone's day with a beautiful piece of artwork. It just takes the right amount of effort and heart to make it happen. It is sad to know that I won't be drawing for a grade anymore, yet I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed drawing in Art class this year, it has been fun.
Artwork Q4

Q4 Art Edgar Pacio

I spent a lot of time this quarter working on my capstone which required me messing around with features on photoshop for a while. Luckily my capstone produced two art pieces that I decided to include in my art portfolio. I also spent time painting a ceiling tile but I am not that proud of how it turned out. I used a grid but somewhere along the way while painting I messed up the proportions. Overall the last quarter was fun because I was able to paint more than I ever have.